


There's a Beast in my Heart

by smaragdbird



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: M/M, and also heart of darkness, shatterpoint inspired, sociopaths in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 23:04:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9094651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: After the loss of Starkiller Hux is sent to a dangerous planet under pretenses by Snoke to get rid of him.But Snoke underestimated him and Hux returns more dangerous than ever.Kylo has never been more turned on.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [this ](http://tfa-kink.dreamwidth.org/1841.html?thread=2948401#cmt2948401) prompt 
> 
> Inspired a lot by the Star Wars novel "Shatterpoint". It's an amazing Star Wars version of Heart of Darkness and if you get the chance you should definitely read it.

By looks alone the man who climbed out of the one man ship couldn’t have had less in common with General Hux if he had changed species. His short and slick red hair now fell in matted locks down to his shoulders. Instead of being clean shaven he had a beard just as snarled and unkempt as his hair.

General Hux had never been caught anything but impeccably dressed, even during emergencies in the middle of the night. And that was how he had left the Finalizer. Now though his clothes could be charitably described as rags. The black had faded from them and looked as if they had been torn apart by a wild animal. 

The overcoat had been sliced apart by claws, barely held together by a few leftover threads, but he wore it over his shoulders like he had before. The shirt, usually starched to the point of being able to support itself, hadn’t fared any better. In fact when Kylo looked closer he realised that there was no shirt. Hux was wearing black undershirt under the greatcoat. Like the rest of his clothes its state gave off the impression that Hux had been fighting Nexu with his bare hands. 

Only it hadn’t been bare handed. Hux had never carried a weapon on his person but now he did. Just from a cursory glance Kylo counted four knives but there were undoubtly more. 

He was still pale but where his clothes revealed skin there were scars visible. That threw Kylo off the most. If Hux had ever been wounded before this mission he hadn’t had any marks to show for it. Kylo had always likened Hux to a marble statue: pale, cold, flawless and untouchable – by him or anyone else. The scars though were a reminder that Hux was just as vulnerable as any living being in the galaxy.

In the end however all these things were just superficialities. Hux walked to greet his officers like nothing was out of the ordinary, shoulders squared and back straight. He ran an eye over the storm troopers who showed more discipline than they had in months.

“General Hux”, Kylo greeted him.

“Lord Ren.” Hux gave him a curt nod. There was a flash of jungles so dense the sunlight didn’t penetrate the canopy of leaves. A growl somewhere in the darkness. A corpse half eaten by a fungus, only it wasn’t a corpse, not yet. A woman screaming as insects hatched from her spine and her head. A figure, half human, half animal and more threatening than either.

The memory was gone as suddenly as it had come. Kylo watched Hux’s retreating back with a hunger he hadn’t felt before. 

/

Hux didn’t bat an eye when he saw Kylo in his quarters. “Is there something you need, Ren?”

Kylo stood up and crossed the room until he was directly in front of Hux. He was taller than Hux but it never seemed to matter. Hux never acted like he noticed. “You were gone for a long time.”

Again he got flashes of jungles, a man with hungry eyes, a Nexu laying in waiting and the dark side of the Force, stronger than anything Kylo had ever felt before. Not fuelled by hate or anger but by pure base survival instincts, being reduced to nothing but that.

“Are you done?” Hux asked, clearly annoyed. His training meant that he could feel when someone used the Force around him even if he couldn’t use it himself. But Kylo couldn’t help himself. Those memories were so close to the surface like water below an oil film.

Kylo looked at him, looked him properly in the eyes and realised that he had been wrong earlier. One thing about Hux had changed fundamentally.

Hux’s eyes used to be part of his uniform, a part of his ironclad control over every aspect of his person and his life. Now that control was gone and instead Hux’ eyes showed that he was the most dangerous being in the room and knew it.

Kylo had been attracted to him before but this, this heady mix of danger and control made his blood boil. He wrapped a hand around Hux’s throat, half caress and half threat. “If I had thought I would never see you again I would’ve killed you myself.”

Hux snorted dismissively but from the corner of his eyes Kylo could see his hands, fingertips resting on his knives. Where before Hux would’ve considered the ramifications of gutting Kylo like a fish, he would not hesitate now.

Kylo leaned in slowly and when Hux didn’t make a move he kissed him. Not even a heartbeat passed before Hux responded to the kiss, returning it slowly and methodically.

His hands found their way into Kylo’s hair, pulling and twisting lightly in a way that sent shivers down Kylo’s spine. Suddenly though his head was wrenched backwards with more strength than he would’ve thought Hux possessed even now.

“You are here because I allow it”, Hux said sharply, eyes burning with barely concealed savagery.

Kylo grinned. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, General.”

/

If Hux had been force-sensitive he would’ve had enormous power at his command. He was so deeply entrenched in the dark side of the Force that Kylo had difficulties telling where one ended and the other began. A part of him was deeply envious of that potential but he had seen the price that had been paid for it.

Hux wanted to pretend that nothing had changed but in his sleep he was as defenceless against his memories as any sentient being. The nightmares were vicious and without his conscious mental defences to keep them down Kylo easily saw what he had seen.

Lesser beings would have lost their minds, forever reduced to an animal-like state, screamed their throats raw at the horrors they had witnessed. But Hux had the self-control of a Jedi, rigid and unyielding. 

In his dreams Hux relived his first kill, marooned in the jungle as a test of strength. It was day but there was barely any light and a growl came from the shadows. The attack came from behind, a swipe of claws from a creature with eyes too intelligent to be merely an animal. In return Hux kicked it in the side, then used the moment of disorientation to wrap his arms around its throat and choke it to death.

On the bed Hux lay still on his back but his hands twitched as his subconsciousness pulled memory after memory to the surface.

Water filling his mouth as someone tried to drown him. Muffling his screams as he cut the fungal infection from his leg with a less than sharp knife. One of the shapeshifters attacking him in her human form and using her corpse as bait for animals he ate raw because cooking them would take too long and a fire would give his position away. The jungle, always and again the jungle like a living breathing entity.

Hux’s mission had been a success or he wouldn’t have returned. Kylo was sure that Snoke hadn’t predicted that he would. And he wondered what Snoke would do now that his most amoral subordinate had gotten rid of the last scruples he had had.

/

“How many did you kill?” Kylo asked in the morning while Hux was standing in front of a mirror in the bathroom shaving. He didn’t even pretend that he hadn’t looked at Hux’s memories during the night.

“Twenty at least, maybe more”, Hux shrugged. “The Gevarno value strength.” 

“And you showed them strength.” It wasn’t a question. Hux wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t.

Hux letting his guard down like this was intoxicating. It wouldn’t have happened before. But now Hux possessed the knowledge that he could and would kill Kylo. He rose from the bed and walked over until he stood behind Hux. 

“Will you get rid of the scars?” He traced one of them with his finger where it wrapped itself around Hux’s torso like a vine.

“There’s no need to. They don’t impact on my range of motions.” Before Hux would’ve erased any and all flaw, any imperfection, but now the scars weren’t a flaw but a mark of pride, a proof that he had survived. Such a primitive notion and yet Kylo felt aroused by the idea.

Kylo traced his name on Hux’s shoulder, imagining taking the razor from Hux’s hand and carving it into his skin right here and now.

In return he felt another memory of Hux, a deliberate slip that showed a man with too many teeth holding Hux down before Hux tore out his throat with his blunt, human teeth.

Kylo laughed softly, hands dropping to his sides. “Supreme Leader Snoke made a mistake when he sent you to Gevarno to die.”

“If he did not anticipate my survival then he deserves what’s coming for him”, Hux stated coolly.

Kylo had long since known that he was attracted to power and it was what had drawn him to Luke and Snoke and Rey and Hux but Hux was beyond mere attraction now. He was like a drug, heady and intoxicating. He leaned down and trailed kisses over his neck and along his shoulder.

Hux sighed but let him do it until he was finished shaving. His hair was still long but washed and clung wetly to his head, drops over water falling down his back. Kylo pulled him around to kiss him, hands resting at the base of his throat. Before, his neck had been the only part of his body that Hux had left bared and even then it had been half covered by his collar. 

Kylo pushed Hux towards the bed and down on it without breaking the kiss. All in the knowledge that Hux let this happen. His body covered his and Kylo leaned up on his elbows to look at Hux: red hair and pale skin splayed against the white sheets.

Hux reached up and touched the corner of Kylo’s mouth with his fingertips. “If I thought I’d never see you again, I would kill you myself.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me [ here](http://smaragdbird.tumblr.com/) on tumblr


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